


Sun Goes Down (Must It Rise?)

by saintsfan165



Series: KacxaWeek2020 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Kacxa Week 2020, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Protective Acxa (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:26:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26808859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintsfan165/pseuds/saintsfan165
Summary: Keith and Acxa return to Earth as Keith makes sense of his feelings.
Relationships: Acxa/Keith (Voltron)
Series: KacxaWeek2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955257
Comments: 9
Kudos: 15





	Sun Goes Down (Must It Rise?)

**Author's Note:**

> The common theme for my fics this week will be the music that inspired me to write. Maybe you'll kind of get a feel for me and how I felt writing this one.

**First Sunrise**

The war is over.

The sun is rising and Keith was home.

Home… a place that didn't used to mean anything to him. Home wasn't anything worth caring about. They used to tell him that home was a person, but Keith didn't believe that it was true either. Until he finally had her in his arms. Home is where the heart is they said. Now, holding his heart in his arms, he finally understood. Home could be a person, could be a half galra former general of Lotor. Home could be someone who used to be an enemy, someone who on many occasions had tried to destroy him and his friends.

Home was Acxa.

And now he had her in his bed, in his once home. Once the mourning and the celebrations were all over and everyone had gone their separate ways to decompress, to return to those they loved, Keith stayed behind. His mother had told him she and Kolivan's work was far from over and if he wanted, he could come with her. And Keith wanted, he really, really wanted to. But he wasn't ready. Rejoining the blades now wasn't the path for him, not yet anyways. He was still technically the leader of Voltron, even if Shiro's presence loomed larger than his.

He was stuck. Unsure of what to do or where to go when he saw her. She was talking to Ezor and Zethrid as the two of them were boarding a ship. To Keith, it looked like a goodbye. Why would she not leave with them?

As he watched their ship depart without her onboard, his feet took him towards her. As he drew closer to her his confusion slowly dissipated, she was the one for him. No one else could compare (no matter how many times the Voltron television show made him and Allura a couple). "Hey," he spoke no louder than a whisper. Acxa gazed out into space, looking at the exact spot where Ezor and Zethrid's ship vanished. "Are you okay?"

"They wanted to live their lives. They're happy to move on. They don't have any regrets," she said with more emotion than he had ever heard from her.

"Why not go with them?" He hesitated to reach out for her, afraid she'd shut down and not open up.

For almost a full decaphoeb since Acxa had joined them, Keith had tried to figure her out. When she came to him at his father's grave, he knew that she was ready to join him. Unfortunately, he wrongfully assumed that she was there to be with him, that she felt the same way he did. Thankfully for him, Acxa hadn't realized what he had meant and therefore they wasn't any awkward tension between them. At least not as much as usual. It was so bad that even Pidge, who self proclaimed that she understood machines more than emotions, picked up on it.

"I have unfinished business here. I couldn't just leave y–it all behind." She paused and glanced back at him. "I couldn't leave without getting answers."

Keith gulped, feeling nervous under her gaze. "What are you going to do until you get them?"

She shrugged. "You don't mind having an extra passenger in your lion do you?" Keith nodded wordlessly.

What happened next surprised both of them. Upon landing back on Earth, Keith was greeted like a hero (after all, he helped save all universe's). But Acxa, people took one look at her and all they saw was her skin color and they bombarded her with slurs.

Acxa of course didn't know what the slurs meant, but she knew that they didn't want her here. That some people still considered her as an enemy.

That was how he came to the decision to take her to the place he grew up. Remote, safe, and peaceful. If there was one place he had missed back on Earth, it was there. And he was more than willing to share those memories with Acxa.

It was unfortunate that he hadn't been there in nearly seven years, technically nine for him when you take into account his time spent traversing the Quantum Abyss. The place was lost to time. Cobwebs were splayed in every corner, dust had collected on every surface, and ghosts of Keith's past haunted every room.

"I'm… I'm sorry about the mess. It's been nearly a decade since I've been gone." He turned to face Acxa who was transfixed with an old picture of him and his father. It was an old Halloween photo from when he was six or seven, he was dressed up as his hero–his father.

"Oh. That's from Halloween. I went as a firefighter," Keith answered with a fond smile that turned sad. "That was the last picture I have of me and my father. He died shortly after this."

Acxa looked back at him. "I'm sorry. No child deserves to lose their parents. Especially at such a young age."

Keith examined his love. There was a sadness in her eyes. A look that Keith knew all too well. She was currently lost in some bittersweet memory… most likely about her own childhood and upbringing.

"Why don't you relax. It's been a long flight." He walked back towards the cabinets that housed the blankets and pillows. Keith wondered if maybe those had been given the dust treatment. Thankfully, the blankets in between the dust covered top and the ones and the moth eaten bottom were suitable.

"It's not much, but until I can wash the old bedding it's the best I got," he said, offering Acxa the blankets. She accepted them with a thanks before neatly folding them and setting them down on the coffee table.

"I can help you."

She was being earnest, he knew. But the idea of her helping him clean his home made him feel… different. "You don't have–"

"Please. It's… just let me help. We made a pretty good team. I don't see why we can't be one now?" Keith just nodded and ran his hands through his hair as he made his way to the master bedroom.

Shit. Why was he so bad at being normal with the girl who had his heart?

"I'll take the kitchen," Acxa yelled back from the living room.

Keith decided to check the power. He knew that the generator had most likely ran out of fuel, so he made the quick trek to the old storage shed, hoping there was still some gasoline left in the tanks for him to use. He smiled to himself when he saw three full fuel tanks still waiting for their owner to use them.

Once he fueled the generator, he made quick work of stripping the bedding and tossing them in the washing machine. With the power back on, he gave Acxa the vacuum and showed her how to use it. They were close, intimately close. Keith has put his hand over hers and showed her how to guide the cleaner, how to use the features to reach the difficult places. Occasionally, they made eye contact when their hands touched but they both would quickly look away blushing.

And so it went. The two of them cleaning up the old house. Acxa occasionally stopped to ask questions about random things she'd find. Who knew that she had never seen a whisk, or a microwave.

By the time they had finished cleaning the house it was nearly midnight. The crickets were out and the moonlight illuminated the dead garden. If he was going to stay here more, he'd have to regrow it.

It's weird, Keith thinks, that this place hadn't felt like a home ever since his dad died. But in spending just half the day here with Acxa it had felt more like a home than ever before. He pushed the thought away as he busted out the rice (the only thing left from his supply that hadn't expired. Well that and the unopened peanut butter)

After eating the bland and not very filling rice, both were too exhausted from traveling and cleaning to even care that they were still hungry.

"There's only one bed. You should have it," Keith told her as the two finished the bottle of whiskey that Keith had found.

"This is your place Keith. I sleep here on the floor." Acxa was surprisingly drunk laying on the floor.

Keith was not about to let her do that. With the remaining energy, he pulled himself off the couch and helped her up. With her arm draped over him, he guided them both into the bedroom. Acxa was still nearly five inches taller than him and probably outweigh him by fifty pounds, but it didn't matter. It didn't matter that one of her horns kept scratching him when her head started to drop. It didn't matter that she was a different person when she was drunk. Drunk Acxa was hilariously witty and had a dry humor that Keith adored. Drunk Acxa showed more emotion than he'd ever seen from her.

When Keith finally laid her down on the bed, her weight and the tangle of limbs that was their legs pulled him down with her. Realizing what she did, Acxa quickly apologized, claiming that she hadn't drank since Zethrid and Ezor coerced her into taking over the ship that had captured Keith when they returned from three years gone.

"I missed you," she admitted after a long period of time where Keith had honestly thought she had fallen asleep. "Everyday I would look up at the stars and wonder where you were. Why hadn't you tried to find me."

"I'm sorry," was all Keith could say as he reached to pull her to face him.

"It's not your fault. I know that. It just–"

"Hurt." All Acxa could do was nod. "You know, I missed you too. When I was in the Quantum Abyss. I–" he paused and looked away, but Acxa's hand found its way to his cheek. "I dreamt of you."

If it was mushy and cheesy, Acxa didn't care. Her smile returned and it was worth any form of humiliation Keith could ever feel.

"What did you dream about?" Her tone was light, but he detected the underlying hit of seriousness. The alcohol must have worn off as she no longer seemed to be in the daze she was in earlier.

Keith blushed again. How could he tell her of all the things he had dreamt of? He most certainly wasn't going to tell her about the few sex dreams he had of her. She couldn't blame him for them though, he was only eighteen at the time. Girls were–are–a mystery to him.

"A future." He answered honestly.

"What did this future look like?" She asked lazily. Keith knew that voice. He'd heard it so many times in his dreams. Acxa sounded safe, loved, and happy. He felt her cuddle up closer to him, her head burying further into his chest.

"Like this."

And that's all he needed to answer, for Acxa knew, that this was the future both of them had wanted. They pulled each other closer and fell asleep for what felt like the first time in years. And when Keith woke up the following day he felt home.

He was home. Acxa was in his arms, and the sun was rising. This was no dream.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by:
> 
> Home - Cavetown (this one is prominent in the work lol)
> 
> Pictures - Judah The Lion feat. Kasey Musgraves (another one I think you can feel in the work)
> 
> I used their first sunrise together as my way to show how they become official!


End file.
